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Chancellor, who are members thereof, and a Secretary and Treasurer, and an Assistant Secretary. The officers hold their positions during the pleasure of the Board. The business of the Board is conducted principally by means of standing committees. Of these, there are ten, viz.: On Incorporations; on the State Museum; on the State Library; on the Instruction of Common School Teachers; on the Distribution of the Literature Fund; on Appropriations for the Purchase of Books and Apparatus; on the Annual Report; on the Visitation of Colleges and Academies; on Academic Examinations; on Printing and Legislation, and on Degrees. The annual meeting of the Board is fixed by law to be held on the evening of the second Thursday in January at the Senate Chamber, and other meetings by order of the Board, or on the call of the Chancellor. Adjourned meetings are held during the sessions of the Legislature, and a semiannual meeting in July. Six members constitute a quorum.

The powers and duties of the Board may be enumerated under the following heads, viz.:

INCORPORATION. — By the original act establishing the University, the Regents were empowered to incorporate colleges and academies, whenever the conditions set forth in the applications were approved by them. This power was confirmed by legislation in 1853, and the Regents were authorized to prescribe by general regulations the conditions for such incorporation. This power was not originally understood to include the incorporation of medical colleges. In the instances where the Board had incorporated medical colleges, as in the cases of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York in 1807, and the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Fairfield in 1812, it had been under special powers conferred for this purpose. But, in 1853, the Legislature enacted that the Board should, whenever specified conditions were complied with, have power also to grant charters for medical colleges. The conditions, which they fixed, required that $50,000 should be secured for the college before a permanent charter could be granted. The Regents, by general ordinance made under authority of the act of 1853, established also the conditions on which charters are granted to literary colleges and academies. In the case of colleges, they require that funds to the amount of $100,000 shall be secured, and that, in addition, suitable. buildings and equipments shall be provided. In the case of academies, they require that the property, including lot, buildings, library and apparatus, shall not be less than $5,000, and that the library and philosophical apparatus shall be worth each at least $500. The

Board is also authorized to annul and amend charters, on due notice and due cause being shown.

VISITATION. The Board is authorized by its officers, committees and accredited agents to visit and inspect all the colleges and academies which are or may be established in the State, and "examine into the state and system of education therein." This authority of visitation extends, not merely to the institutions chartered by the Board itself, but also to those receiving their charters from the Legislature. Each such college and academy is required by law to make to the Board an annual report of its affairs, according to such instructions and forms as the Board may establish. This report pertains to its financial condition, its means of imparting instruction, its departments of study, and its statistics of attendance. The results of the information gathered by the visitation, and from the returns made to the Board, are embodied in a report, which has been annually, since the establishment of the Board, sent to the Legislature.

DEGREES.-The Board of Regents, according to the original charter, possessed the power of conferring honorary degrees above that of Master of Arts. This power has been very sparingly exercised. Since its organization the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws has been conferred only on fifteen persons. The degree of Doctor of Civil Law has been conferred only once, in 1873, on William Beach Lawrence. The degree of Doctor of Literature has been conferred only since 1864 on twelve persons. The degree of Doctor of Philosophy has been conferred since 1860 on twenty-three persons. The honorary degrees are confined to cases where the persons have performed some signal service to literature, science or education, and the special cause is recited with the degree.

By special statute the Board is also empowered to grant other degrees on certain conditions. It may confer the honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine each year on four candidates nominated by each of the State Medical Societies. This degree does not, however, carry with it the right to practice medicine. It is empowered, by an act passed in 1872, to appoint Boards of Medical Examiners, on whose nomination it may grant the full degree of Doctor of Medicine. It is also empowered to establish a system of examinations for the bestowal of degrees of any grade.

CONVOCATION. - The Board established in 1863 a Convocation of the University, of which the Regents and the officers of all colleges and academies and normal schools within the State are members. The Convocation is held in July, at the Capitol, in Albany, and is

presided over by the Chancellor. The business is the consideration of topics relating to the organization and administration of the institutions comprised in the University, and of questions relating to the general interests of education. The sessions extend through three days, and at the final session the honorary degrees granted by the Board are conferred by the Chancellor. The papers and discussions of the Convocation are printed with the annual report of the Regents to the Legislature. A large amount of valuable pedagogic literature is the result of these convocations.

STATE LIBRARY.-The Regents, in 1844, were constituted the Trustees of the State Library. In this capacity they are charged with the administration of the laws and the enactment of regulations as to its management. Their care also extends to the historical documents belonging to the State, and to the papers and docu. ments left by the Legislature. They serve as the agents of the State for the distribution of law reports and legislative documents among the States and Territories, and the public libraries and institutions entitled by law to receive them. They are also the Trustees of certain law libraries established at Syracuse, Rochester, Brooklyn and Buffalo. The special supervision of the State Library is intrusted to a Standing Committee of the Regents. The Staff of Librarians is appointed by the Board.

STATE MUSEUM.- The Regents were, by an act of 1845, created the Trustees of the State Museum of Natural History. The supervision of it is intrusted to a Standing Committee. The scientific staff is appointed by the Board, and consists of a Director and assistants, and of the State Entomologist and the State Botanist. The Legislature makes an appropriation each year for the support of the Museum, which is expended under the supervision of the Standing Committee. The Trustees make to the Legislature each year a report on the Museum, to which is appended the reports of the Director and of the Entomologist and Botanist.

NORMAL SCHOOL AT ALBANY. The law authorizing the establishment of this institution was passed in 1844, and provides that it be placed under the joint management of the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Regents of the University. An Executive Committee, appointed by the Board of Regents on the nomination. of the Superintendent, has the immediate supervision.

BOUNDARIES OF THE STATE. By direction of the Legislature, the Board has conducted an extended investigation into the condition of the boundaries of the State. Valuable reports embodying the his.

tory of these boundaries have been made to the Legislature, and for several years the work of restoring the monuments of the lines be. tween New York and its neighbors has been in progress, under the charge of Commissioners appointed on the part of New York by the Board from its own members.

PUBLICATIONS.

Some of the publications of the Board of Regents have a standard educational value. The annual reports of the Board to the Legislature contain a vast amount of information as to the colleges and academies in the State and as to the general history of education. The manual of the Regents, issued first as "Instructions," is a collection of all the laws, ordinances and instructions relating to the institutions under their care. The Regents, as Trustees of the State Library, present annual reports to the Legislature which contain a statement, in detail, of the annual additions. They have also issued at various times catalogues of the books in the different departments of the library. The annual report of the Regents, as Trustees of the State Museum, besides the statements as to the condition and progress of the Museum, contain a large amount of valuable scientific material. Several special volumes have also at various times been issued by the Board.

PERSONAL HISTORY.-The personal history of the Board of Regents would contain many matters of interest. During its extended existence an unusual number of distinguished men have been connected with it. Leaving out of account the Governors and Lieutenant-Governors and others, who have been ex-officio Regents, there have been one hundred and twenty-six Regents chosen by the Legislature. Of these, forty-three resigned, fifty-two died in office, ten vacated their places by removal or otherwise, and nineteen are now in office. The longest term of office was that of Gulian C. Verplanck, who served from 1826 to 1870, a period of forty-four years. Matthew Clarkson served thirty-nine years, and Simeon De Witt thirty-seven years.

By far the longest connection with the Board, however, was that of Gideon Hawley, who acted as Secretary of the Board from 1814 to 1841, and then, after an interval of only a few months, having been elected a Regent, served till his death in 1870. This constituted a total of fifty-six years; and they were years full of useful and active service. When only a young man, in 1813, he was appointed to the office, then first created, of Superintendent of Common Schools, and he has been justly called "the father of the common-school system of the State." He was soon after, in March, 1814, appointed Sec

retary of the Regents of the University. His official career extended through the formative period of the educational system of the State, and much of the good work done must be justly attributed to him. Mr. Hawley's character for integrity and purity, and his great administrative ability, gave to his opinions decisive weight in all deliberations, and, for a long time before his death, he was looked upon by his associates in the Board as "a living epitome of its history, its progress, its labors and its influence."

The lists given below show the officers of the Board from its organization in 1784 to 1881. The early Chancellors of the Board were in each case the Governor for the time being. Thus, George Clinton, who was Governor at the time of the organization of the first Board, was chosen Chancellor, and so continued through his successive terms. Then John Jay, his successor as Governor, was chosen Chancellor. This continued until the time when Governor Tompkins was elected Vice-President of the United States and Lieutenant-Governor John Tayler, as acting-governor, was chosen Chancellor. Being also a Regent by election, he continued to hold the office after his official term as Lieutenant-Governor expired. From that time the office of Chancellor has been disconnected from the office of Governor. The longest period was the Chancellorship of John V. L. Pruyn, who held it nearly sixteen years.

GEORGE CLINTON
JOHN JAY.....

CHANCELLORS OF THE UNIVERSITY.

. 1784 STEPHEN VAN RENSSELAER.. 1835 JAMES KING....

. 1796

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1839 1842 . 1849

1862 ... 1878

.......

1881

VICE-CHANCELLORS OF THE UNIVERSITY.

PIERRE VAN CORTLANDT.... 1784 DANIEL S. DICKINSON........ 1843

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